Cooking meat with dark beer may reduce cancer risk

According to a recent study, soaking meat in dark beer can reduce the amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the carcinogens produced by the meat when cooked at very high temperatures.

In several lab tests, the PAHs, which also exist in cigarette smoke and car exhaust, have been linked to cancers, birth defects, and reproductive problems in animals.

The study, carried out by a group of European scientists at the University of Vigo in Spain and University of Porto in Portugal, suggests that beer marinades are an excellent way of reducing PAHs in grilled meat.

For the experiment, the researchers bought a bunch of pork loin steaks. They marinated some of the pork steaks in three different beers- a pilsner, a non-alcoholic pilsner, and a black beer- for four hours, while left others un-marinated to use them as a control group.

Then they grilled the pork steaks on a charcoal grill, analyzed the PAHs levels and then compared the results to a slab of pork that hadn’t been soaked in anything.

What they found was really astonishing. They found that all three beers were effective in eliminating the levels of some potential PAHs in cooked meat, and the dark beer had the strongest effect on the carcinogens than any of the others.

Dark ale marinade reduced the levels of eight major PAHs on cooked pork by more than half (53%) compared with unmarinated pork, while the Pilsner reduced carcinogens by 25 percent. Surprisingly, the non-alcoholic beer too affected the PAH level. The non-alcoholic Pilsner reduced the levels of some potential carcinogens by 13 percent.

"Thus, the intake of beer marinated meat can be a suitable mitigation strategy," researchers said.

The study appears in American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
So, next time you host a barbecue party, make sure you marinate the meat in a dark beer before grilling it.